Winter, 1980. The Yorkshire Ripper has just claimed his thirteenth victim. Ripper thirteen, police nil. As public anger against the police mounts, Assistant Chief Constable Peter Hunter is sent to take over the investigation. The Strafford Shootings remain unsolved, and the murders of the Jubilee summer of 1977 are still attributed to the Ripper. But Hunter soon realises that all is not as it seems - and that the police are more heavily implicated in the killings than anyone could have imagined. Jack Whitehead, alone and mad in a mental institution after trying to exorcise the demons from his head with hammer and nail, appears to hold the key. What is the connection between the Ripper and this fresh spate of violence? And what will happen when these men's separate hells collide?